


This One Is All Yours

by pencilguin



Series: You Found Me in so Many Places [5]
Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-25 14:37:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18576502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pencilguin/pseuds/pencilguin
Summary: [spoilers for episode 2x14] Once the final battle is over, Paul wakes up in sickbay.





	This One Is All Yours

**Author's Note:**

> Content warning: Only for Paul's injuries as in the episode, nothing graphic.

For some reason it’s the stillness that wakes Paul. The ship is no longer being rocked by explosions and attacks and jumps through time and space. Or it could be the anesthetic wearing off, of course. He opens his eyes slightly and squints at the ceiling lights of sickbay. Still in here after all, then, and getting impaled was definitely not a dream, because the pain still feels very real, although a good amount of the painkillers is still doing its work on his system.

He notices that his uniform has been removed and replaced with a pair of the simple, dark gray sickbay pants, although he isn’t wearing a shirt; his torso merely has been covered with a thin, light blanket. He tries to sit up, but quickly abandons that plan. Someone in white hurries to his side.

“You’re awake,” a soft, familiar voice says.

Paul slowly turns his head and Hugh comes into view. Hugh is here. But he had said …

“Hugh,” he manages to get out, voice feeble and weak. “Wh—”

“Shh,” Hugh says, and his hand strokes back Paul’s hair. Gosh, how much he’s missed that touch. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”

“You’re here,” Paul mumbles. “You said you’d …”

Hugh smiles at him with a bit of sadness.

“I know, but I changed my mind.”

“You can’t be here,” Paul says, trying once more to get up, but Hugh gently shoves him back down.

“Don’t move around, Paul, please, you’re not fully healed yet.”

“You’re supposed to be on the Enterprise, you’re supposed to be safe, not … not here with us,” he mutters. He’d thought that seeing Hugh before he passed out had been a figment of his delirious mind, a vision induced by blood loss and pain and the shock of internal organ damage. Hugh, who came and took care of him and told him that they were family and Paul was his home and they’d never have to part again. It simply couldn’t be true, not after everything that has happened.

“I know,” Hugh says quietly, “that’s what I said. But, Paul … I couldn’t. I couldn’t watch you go. I … I realized that I want you in my life, and I can’t and don’t want to imagine my future without you.”

“But …” Paul stammers. “But you said that …”

Hugh grimaces.

“I know. I … I needed some time, I guess. But I never _didn’t_ want you in my life. Not really. And I—I feel stupid about it now, but I tried to talk to you a few times after … after our fight, and they went all wrong. I guess I have awful timing sometimes.”

“Yeah.” Paul chuckles, but it turns into pained coughs because it makes his chest hurt again. “Kind of.”

There’s Hugh’s hand again, running over his hair and then his cheek to comfort him.

“Take it easy, love. We’ve got so many people to treat that I couldn’t patch you up completely right away. You’re out of danger for now, but not fully healed.” He smiles warmly. Oh, how Paul has missed that sight. “But things seem to have quieted down a bit now so maybe we can get started soon.”

“Oh! That’s right—did we make it? Where are we? _When_ are we?”

“I—I’m not sure yet,” Hugh says in his calmest, most reassuring doctor’s voice. “I think we made the jump, but we haven’t heard any further details yet.”

Paul closes his eyes and smiles.

“They did it. Burnham succeeded. That’s good.”

“ _You_ made that possible,” Hugh says, and when Paul opens his eyes again to look at him, his smile is warm and bright and it’s all _his_ again now, after all, Hugh is smiling only for him. “My genius.”

“Genius yourself,” Paul mumbles fondly. He tries to shift again, more slowly this time, and to move the blanket covering his chest. “How bad is it, doctor?”

Hugh places his hand over Paul’s and carefully guides him in lifting the blanket.

“I was able to remove the piece of metal from your chest, fix your internal organs, and stop the bleeding, but the superficial wound isn’t closed yet.”

Once the fabric is removed, it reveals Paul’s bare torso, still riddled with smaller cuts and bruises, and the gauze that Hugh has used to cover the hole in his chest for the moment. No blood is seeping through yet, at least.

“Can I …?”

Hugh frowns at him.

“Are you sure?”

Paul nods at him slowly. He peels off a bit of the gauze. _Yikes._ There’s the blood, after all, but it’s less than expected. The raw fringes of his skin are right next to where he knows his heart is.

“You were incredibly lucky,” Hugh almost whispers. Paul knows him well enough to read the nuances. He’s scared, even now, by how close it was. Paul looks up at his face again.

“Thank you,” he says. “For coming back. For staying by my side. I … I promise I’ll make sure you won’t regret it.”

He can see the tears in Hugh’s eyes as he leans down and places a gentle kiss on Paul’s lips, and the familiarity of it is enough to make Paul tear up as well. He wishes that he’d never have to let this moment go again, but of course, Hugh pulls away eventually, and at least in the soft smile on his lips is the promise of many more kisses in their future. _Together._

“I think things around here have calmed down enough for now,” Hugh says. “If you’re feeling up for it, I can start healing the rest of your wounds. Or would you rather go back to sleep while I get to work?”

“No,” Paul mutters. “It’s fine.”

Hugh reaches over to the small table with his equipment next to the bed, and Paul inspects his chest wound more closely. He doesn’t remember what happened very well, but it seems pretty small for the large chunk of metal that had been stuck in there. It looks a little like the V-shape of his Starfleet badge, although somewhat distorted, and since he’s looking at himself from above it would be upside-down to anyone else, of course.

Hugh puts a hand on his shoulder to make him lie back down on the bed and takes the gauze away, dumps it in a little tray on the table.

“Leave the scar.”

“What?”

“Leave it,” Paul says. His tone is quiet, but firm, and he looks at Hugh with determination.

“Are you sure?”

“This feels significant,” he explains. “I—I think this is the closest I have ever come to—to losing my life.”

“You know, I seriously doubt that.” Hugh frowns, and there’s a hint of his old sass in there. “I’ve seen you do a lot of stupid things over the years, Paul Stamets, and they’ve grown significantly in their frequency since taking off on this ship. You _actually_ died once, according to your medical file.”

“I … I know. But this time, you saved me. And not just that. You—you’re back. You gave me a reason for wanting to be alive again. And what you said earlier … You’re my home, too. You know that, right?”

Hugh’s expression turns infinitely soft.

“You heard?”

“I thought it was a fever dream,” Paul mumbles. Being awake for so long is starting to exhaust him. “Because you couldn’t be here. But of course you were.”

Hugh remains silent for a moment, looking at the wound in Paul’s chest.

“You’re sure you want to keep it? It will hurt longer, and take more time to heal.”

Paul closes his eyes and makes himself comfortable on the biobed with a peaceful smile on his face.

“That’s fine. I’ve got a great doctor taking care of me, after all.”

Hugh laughs a little and gets to work with the regenerator. The low humming noise it emits and the exhaustion are making Paul drowsy.

“Ha.” Hugh’s voice pulls him back again after a while. “Did you see what shape this was going to be?”

Paul opens one eye and grins at him.

“Just like the other one, this heart is all yours, my dear doctor.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to @thewatch for beta reading! 
> 
> And thank you everyone for all your super nice comments, they make me really happy! <3


End file.
